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An investment fund is a way of investing money alongside other investors in order to benefit from the inherent advantages of working as part of a group. These advantages include an ability to: * hire professional investment managers, which may potentially be able to offer better returns and more adequate risk management; * benefit from economies of scale, i.e., lower transaction costs; * increase the asset diversification to reduce some unsystemic risk. Terminology varies with country but investment funds are often referred to as investment pools, collective investment vehicles, collective investment schemes, managed funds, or simply funds. An investment fund may be held by the public, such as a mutual fund, exchange-traded fund, or closed-end fund,〔Closed-end funds are a special type of investment fund in the U.S. which is offered to the public, but not redeemable. Lemke, Lins and Smith, ''Regulation of Investment Companies'', §4.04()(); §9.05 (Matthew Bender, 2014 ed.).〕 or it may be sold only in a private placement, such as a hedge fund or private equity fund.〔Lemke, Lins, Hoenig and Rube, ''Hedge Funds and Other Private Funds: Regulation and Compliance'' (Thomson West, 2014-2015 ed.).〕 The term also includes specialized vehicles such as collective and common trust funds, which are unique bank-managed funds structured primarily to commingle assets from qualifying pension plans or trusts.〔Lemke and Lins, ''ERISA for Money Managers'' (Thomson West, 2014-2015 ed.).〕 Investment funds are promoted with a wide range of investment aims either targeting specific geographic regions (''e.g.,'' emerging markets or Europe) or specified industry sectors (''e.g.,'' technology). Depending on the country there is normally a bias towards the domestic market due to familiarity, and the lack of currency risk. Funds are often selected on the basis of these specified investment aims, their past investment performance, and other factors such as fees. ==Law== The term "collective investment scheme" is a legal concept deriving initially from a set of European Union Directives to regulate mutual fund investment and management. The Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities Directives (85/611/EEC ), as amended by (2001/107/EC ) and (2001/108/EC ) (typically known as UCITS for short) created an EU wide structure, so that funds fulfilling its basic regulations could be marketed in any member state. The basic aim of collective investment scheme regulation is that the financial "products" that are sold to the public are sufficiently transparent, with full disclosure about the nature of the terms.〔See AA Berle and GC Means, ''The Modern Corporation and Private Property'' (1932) Book III〕 In the United Kingdom, the primary statute is the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, where Part XVII, sections 235 to 284 deal with the requirements for a collective investment scheme to operate. It states in section 235 that a “collective investment scheme” means "any arrangements with respect to property of any description, including money, the purpose or effect of which is to enable persons taking part in the arrangements (whether by becoming owners of the property or any part of it or otherwise) to participate in or receive profits or income arising from the acquisition, holding, management or disposal of the property or sums paid out of such profits or income." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Investment fund」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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